NDC Finally Drops ‘Makola Calculator’ Results Collation

…Declares Assin-North Results In Record Time, After 2016, 2020 Lessons From NPP

After years of being mocked repeatedly by its political opponents for failure to collate election results on time during major elections, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) seems to have gotten it right at last, after the party successfully collated its results in record time at the just-ended Assin North by-election.

The Anchor has observed, in less than two hours after the close of the poll at 5pm on Tuesday, June 27, the NDC’s collation center had completed more than half of the provisional results by collating 85 out of 99 polling stations.

Unlike in the past where the party struggles with collation and nobody knows the whereabouts of collated results, this time round not only were the results put out in the public, but also screenshots of the giant screen on which they were being projected were shared on various social media platforms instantly that showed that the NDC was in a commanding lead.

The timely manner the NDC approached the Assin North by-election has sent signals of how the party seemed to have picked collation lessons from their counterparts in the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Insiders told The Anchor that the scientific method of collating election results, often deployed by the NPP and which has seen them floor the NDC, has been adopted by the party’s current national executive, engineered by the general secretary of the NDC, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, which was his key campaign promise prior to the delegates congress.

It would be recalled that, some elements in the governing NPP had often taunted the NDC over its inability to collate the results during the 2016 and 2020 elections and also offered to provide technical support to help it collate its election results.

The deputy general secretary of the NPP, Haruna Mohammed, while delivering a solidarity message at the NDC’s national delegates congress in Accra last year, sarcastically said, “NDC has, election after election, been unable to collate their results. And so, anytime an election petition is instituted to challenge the outcome of a general election, as declared by the Electoral Commission, the Party [NDC] always struggles to make a case in court.”

“We need you [NDC] to elect competent leaders who will be able to collate your results so that you don’t go to the Supreme Court again without collated results. In fact, the NPP is ready and willing to offer technical and logistical support to aid you in the collation of your election results,” he said.

But, interestingly, this time round, the NDC, in record time, collated and declared its provisional results in this Tuesday’s Assin North by-election, something viewed as a complete departure from its old way of collating results, which had seen the p4artylosing two major elections in 2016 and 2020.

This development has set tongues wagging, especially with journalists and political watchers wondering how the party has managed to pick its lessons from opponent in the NPP so swift.

A former national organizer of the party and now MP for Buem constituency, Kofi Adams, in a recent interview on Atinka TV’s Current Affairs show, “The Agenda,” said that his party has learnt its lessons and that the right thing will be done in 2024.

He admitted that, in both the 2016 and 2020 elections, certain individuals in charge of results collation failed to do their job.

“We have learnt lessons as to why certain things happened, and we will not repeat them. Next time around, even though we have people responsible for various units, there will be a certain level of integration somehow,” Kofi Adams assured.

Show your collated results

Meanwhile, a former deputy director of IT for the party has challenged the NPP to disclose their collated results from the just-ended by-election at Assin North.

According to Kojo Gyeke Dako, this challenge is consistent with the governing NPP’s own practice of displaying their collated results in any election, which he believes creates unnecessary tensions.

Mr. Gyeke Dako is questioning why the party has failed to do so in the Assin North by-election, if the NPP believes that is the way to go.

The former deputy director, in an interview with the media, also explained that the NDC withholds election results from public view temporarily as a strategic move to allow the party to approach post-election dynamics with a clear understanding of their position.

The Assin North constituency has been a focal point of controversy, since the parliamentary election in 2020.

The NDC’s James Gyakye Quayson was declared the winner in the initial election, but a suit challenging his eligibility overa dual citizenship claim resulted in an annulment of the election, which led to the consequent by-election held on Tuesday, this week.

On Tuesday, Mr.Quayson, who was ejected from Parliament last month, following a Supreme Court decision annulling the 2020 constituency election victory, won the closely contested by-election with 17,245 votes, representing 57.56% of valid votes.

His main rival, Charles Opoku, of the New Patriotic Party, polled 12,630 or 42.15% of valid votes to place second, while Liberal Party of Ghana’s Bernice Enam Sefanu polled only 87 votes or 0.29%.

Amidst warnings that Quayson risks a jail term from the ongoing criminal trial he faces in court, the National Democratic Congress fielded him again, rubbishing the threat issued mainly by the ruling New Patriotic Party that he was a likely jail candidate.

Indeed, President Akufo-Addo, at a final rally ahead of the polls, had urged constituents not to waste their votes by voting for Quayson because he would waste their time with court litigation.

Source: Anchorghana.com